Price played the heartbeats again.

I whispered to the screen, “I’ll figure this out.”

For the first time in months, I believed myself.

PART 4: A City Where Nobody Knew My Name

Charlotte welcomed me with humid afternoons, construction cranes, and the smell of rain on warm pavement.

I rented a small upstairs apartment above a florist and worked freelance design jobs that involved everything from restaurant seating plans to nursery storage drawings.

Priya introduced me to a contractor named Jonah Bell who needed help making aging apartment buildings safer and more accessible.